The Priest at Prayer, May 4

The Priest and the Eternal Truths
Mortal Sin in the Priest

Seventh Meditation

Punishment of the Scandalous Priest

I. A day of dread and horror, the day when Christ, the Prince of Pastors, the Great Shepherd, will come to judge His bad ministers, wolves in shepherd's clothing! His Wrath Will be the equal of His overflowing love that made Him give life and blood to the task of redeeming souls and snatching them from the wolves of hell.

"The day will surely come, and is not far off, when the Shepherd of shepherds will reveal Himself to the whole world and will reveal the works of each one; and He who now chastises the sins of others through His priests will on that day Himself condemn the evil wrought by His priests, and condemn with unmatched rigor." (Hom. 17 on Luke - St. Gregory, Pope)

How Christ will say to the scandalous priest, with lips tremulous with indignation, what Moses said to Aaron:

"What grudge hadst thou against this people, that thou hast involved them in such guilt?" (Ex. xxxii, 21)

II. Woe to him. . . he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better. . .­(Matt. xviii, 7)

Note the similarity, almost the identity of this threat with that which Jesus pronounces against the traitor Apostle: Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man shall be betrayed: it were better. . . (Matt. xxvi, 24); which implies that he who puts souls to the sword of bad example is as hateful to Christ as Judas who sold Him to the torments of the cross; as criminal and as deserving of punishment.

If such woe upon him who shall hurt the conscience of one single soul, what will be, in the sight of God, the unworthy priest who by his perverse inspiration and example can root up morality and perhaps the faith of a whole parish, of a whole district, and for several generations? Such is our bad example's force of expansion!

III. Describing the good shepherd as one who gives his life for his sheep, our Divine Lord compares him with the hireling who

sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees . . . because he is a hireling, and he has no care for the sheep; and because the shepherd flees, the wolf catches and scatters the sheep. (John x, 11-13)

Sheep without a shepherd are sheep without guardian and guide, lost and wandering, a flock dispersed, an easy prey to the ravening wolves. And all because the shepherd fled!

Now, what would happen if the shepherd did not flee, but actually turned into a ravening wolf and shut him­self up within the fold? What sheep would escape from his clutches? Who would defend them? It is Pope St. Gregory who makes this sad reflection. (Hom. 17 on Luke)

If Christ will so severely punish the hireling, what of the shepherd turned wolf?

IV. What sort of punishments does the Good Shepherd allot to the scandalous priest?

The Gospels do not mention them by name, but how they underline the terrific severity of them!

It would be horrible torture to a priest to have a millstone tied round the neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea; and yet, according to Jesus Christ, this would be kindness itself in comparison with the punishment in store. It were better. . .

And if we are not moved by the threats of the eternal punishment infallibly coming down upon our scandals, let us hear at least those other punishments mentioned by the prophet Malachias:

"That path you have forsaken; through your ill­-teaching, how many a foothold lost! . . . What wonder if I have made you a laughing-stock, a thing contemptible in all men's sight, priests that so ill kept my command. . . . -(ii, 8,9)

When we consider the utter contempt with which some people, even seemingly devout Catholics, treat their priests in certain countries, can we assign any other cause but that which God gives us in the foregoing text?

Resolution
I will atone until my last breath by an exemplary and fervent priestly life for the damage that my years of dissipation may have done in the Church of God. I will uproot the tares and sow wheat more plentifully.
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!